Preamble

Members were presented with information on the Scrutiny Review of Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing of Children and Young People.

Key points were highlighted as follows:

Self-harm was important for a number of reasons including:

1. It could be an indication of underlying difficulties2. It could be a predictor of future problems3. It was often repeated4. There were higher risks of future serious harm5. It was important to tackle to reduce future risk

- Some results suggested that as many as 10% of young people had self-harmed at some point in the past.

- A survey of 15-16 year olds revealed that 6.9% overall had self-harmed in the past year. This was 11.2% of girls and 3.2% of boys and therefore overall, was a common problem.

Hospital admissions for self-harm in Stockton-on-Tees were considerably higher than the average for England. The hospital admission rates for self-harm locally were much higher in the teenage years and especially for girls.

Members heard that suggestions to improve the mental health and emotional wellbeing of children going forward included:

- Training on self-harm issues for frontline workers- Support for low level' self-harm- Support for families and friends of those who self-harm- Views of young people and use of technology- Proper assessments for those who self-harmImproving collection of numbers on self-harm locally